Workers claim Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson is anti-union

Movies News

Oct 21, 2005, 3:03 GMT

Wellington - Oscar-winning New Zealand film director Peter Jackson is anti-labour unions, a workers' group claimed on Friday following an official report about safety conditions on his 'King Kong' film set after an accident last year. Ross Wilson, president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) said Jackson needed to change his anti-union approach and respect rights of his staff to organise safety procedures in the workplace, the Newstalk ZB radio station reported. Wilson said New Zealand should stop seeing Jackson, who has been hailed as a national hero after his Oscar-winning blockbuster 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, through rose-tinted glasses. A report by the government's Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) organisation said it was lucky no one was killed last October when scaffolding collapsed on two workers on the set of Jackson's remake of 'King Kong' being filmed in Wellington. Workers interviewed said crew had been working for up to 25 hours before the accident and a stage rigger said work practices and lack of safety infrastructure were the worst he had experienced, the Dominion Post reported. It quoted him as saying: 'I personally had the objective of coming out of the employment period in one piece.' The paper said the company producing 'King Kong', Big Primate, which is owned by Universal City Studios in California, would not comment on the report except to say it had co-operated fully with the investigation. There was no comment from Jackson. 'King Kong' will have its world premiere in New York in December. © dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur